Beating the winter blues

If it seems like my life posts are getting a bit more dreary and “blah” lately, I have a perfectly good explanation. Namely, it’s winter and I hate it. There are far too many occasions in my life when I ask myself why I live in a place that has a good 4-5 months of winter every year, but unfortunately I know I’m never going to leave so I figure that the only way to deal with it is through a combination of complaining (see above) or coming up with fun things to do. So, since you didn’t come here to read about my rants (I’m assuming – if you want me to, requests are being taken), then I decided to come up with some fun winter-related activities that actually make this season a bit more bearable.

1. Ice Skating

This is my absolute favorite winter activity. It might be the one place on the planet that I’m actually coordinated so any chance that I have to get out and get on the ice I’ll take. There are rinks indoors and outdoors so you can probably find one anywhere near you are! Just don’t be a wall-hugger, please.

2. Sledding

While sledding is a classic winter sport, may I offer a word of caution: before you go down the hill, please check to see what is waiting for you at the bottom. Not that I’ve had any personal experience in the matter or anything, but there may come that time when you and your friends decide it’s a great idea to cram all four of you onto two snow tubes and then find yourself flying head-first into a bush that pops both of your snow tubes and gives you a face full of snow. Not saying that did happen, but it could. So exercise caution.

3. Virtual winter sports

Worried about injury? Avoid the possibility of physical turmoil by taking your winter activities indoors! If you don’t have a video game console like a Wii or XBox, you can invest in an inexpensive used one on eBay or through gaming stores. Once you’ve got it, get up and ski or skate or luge like the virtual athlete you were born to be! If you don’t feel like investing in video games, then you could try turning your kitchen floor into a skating rink by wearing socks and sliding. Dangerous? Yes. But you feel like a pro skater and it won’t even matter how much injury you sustain when you run into the counter. Which sort of defeats the “avoiding physical turmoil” argument but whatever.

4. Professional eating

Yes, obviously this one is supposed to be a joke but really, what better time to stuff your face than in the winter? Everything good that’s out right now is warm and hearty and sugary and you’re all bundled up anyways so why not just forget about trying to limit yourself and just eat whatever you want! After all, doesn’t it keep you warmer? Exactly, justification!

So, if you’re having a rough time getting through this winter, try some of these ideas to help make it a little bit more enjoyable. Or, if you’re in a place where the temperature is still 80 degrees because life isn’t fair, please ignore this and continue suntanning. You lucky person, you.